Meet 8 Rohingya and Bangladeshi Aid Workers
They’re helping their neighbors one year after the crisis began
One year ago, violence in Burma’s northern Rakhine state prompted a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Burma to Bangladesh, creating the largest refugee settlement in the world with nearly 920,000 people in Cox’s Bazar. Rohingya brought few possessions with them, and rely on humanitarian assistance to survive. Numerous individuals and organizations, including USAID, ensure that nearly a million people receive food, health care, shelter and other life-saving essentials. Read about eight local Bangladeshis and Rohingya hired within the camps who are part of this humanitarian effort.
Tahmina Ismat
Tahmina makes sure that children under 5 years old and women who are either pregnant or breastfeeding get additional, nutritious food to supplement family meals. She grew up in Chittagong, a major city in southern Bangladesh, and while she doesn’t have a degree in nutrition, she has a lot of on-the-job training. Tahmina worries that monsoon rains will prevent moms and kids from coming to the treatment center, but she finds the work very rewarding despite the challenges. She remembers helping a severely malnourished young girl and her mother. When the daughter was healthy, her mother returned to tell Tahmina she was very grateful, saying prayers of thanks. “I was proud to have provided her care and support,” Tahmina says.
Muhammad Kawsar
Muhammad is a Rohingya refugee who has worked at a nutrition center since it was built 11 months ago. He had recently arrived in Bangladesh when he saw Save the Children constructing the site and asked for a job. In Myaw Daung, Burma, Mohammad taught middle school for seven years — English plus five other subjects. Today, he helps women and children figure out where to go and brings order to the occasional chaos as a crowd control officer. His mother died a few weeks ago from a stomach tumor, but prior to that most of his wages — 500 taka, roughly $6 per day — went to medical bills and extra food for his family. He’s grateful that he gets to help his community and that he has work. “It’s good to work and I do not stay idle,” he said. “Life here is hard, but I have freedom to pray and I am not afraid to sleep.”
Nasima Akter
When Nasima saw an advertisement looking for people to help with kids in the refugee camp, she jumped at the chance. “I was happy to help,” she says, “I want to serve others.” She grew up in Bandarban, Bangladesh, about threehours from the refugee camp, so she was also excited to be closer to her five siblings and her parents. At the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) nutrition center, she uses a mid-upper arm circumference band to check children for malnutrition. Similar to a measuring tape, it is very simple to use: good health is green, moderate malnutrition is yellow and severe malnutrition is red. If it is yellow or red, children are referred for additional treatment by UNICEF or other humanitarian organizations.
Muhammad Takind and Imman Sharif
When Muhammad and Imman (left and right, respectively) arrived in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, they had not eaten in days. They received high-energy biscuits, and later food to cook themselves provided by the UN World Food Program (WFP) and funded by USAID. Today, they carry food from a distribution site to the homes of people who need help such as orphans, the elderly and pregnant women. Both were farmers in Burma and hope to harvest rice, potatoes, tea and onions again in the future. Until then, their daily wages (350 Bangladeshi taka or $4 per day) help them supplement their own humanitarian food rations with vegetables, fish, spices such as turmeric and chili, and fuel to cook with.
Katlima Newaz Rity
Katlima (top left) sits with her coworkers Maimuna Aktar Beauty (center) and Kohinur Akter (right) at the checkout counter of a food shop in Jadimura, the southernmost refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. There are 18 shops like this one — run by Bangladeshi vendors, managed by WFP and funded by USAID — that allow roughly 200,000 refugees to buy a variety of items, including fresh eggs and vegetables, that are not provided by the general food ration. Katlima lives in Lela, Teknaf, a small village nearby. For two years, she worked in a similar shop in the older section of the refugee camp, but nine months ago her boss asked her to help open a new shop. Her brother, Hamid, works for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and told her about the job three years ago. When asked what she likes best about her job Katlima said, “I can help with family expenses, use a little for myself and I like helping Rohingya families.”
Muhammad Abdur Rahim
Nearly 11 months ago, Abdur arrived in Bangladesh with his family from neighboring Burma, carrying nothing but a change of clothes. He’s struggled to find a job, but recently found work on a construction crew that is working to reduce the risks from monsoons and landslides by building new roads, bridges and buildings as well as repairing and rehabilitating damaged structures in the camps. Abdur now makes 400 taka (about $5) a day weaving bamboo fencing around the road construction sites and tamping down the ground to stabilize the sloping hillside. He says these wages are a lifeline. He has a large family — nine children — and the food rations provided aren’t quite enough to feed everyone. He’s used his income to buy more food from the local market and medicine for two of his children who are sick.
Majedul Haque
Majedul has been working on the logistics sector team since the beginning of the crisis. He left a private construction company in Dhaka to help in the response because he always wanted to work for the United Nations and to help others. Since he arrived, Majedul has helped construct bridges, mobile storage units, prefabricated buildings and everything else. When asked to choose his favorite project, he couldn’t pick just one. “When I first came to help, there was nothing here. I’m proud to help nearly one million people here in every way I can.”
About the Author
Maggie Moore is a communications officer with USAID’s Office of Food for Peace. Learn more about how USAID is helping support the humanitarian response in Bangladesh here and follow USAID’s Food for Peace @USAID_FFP.
